[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-56229-en":3,"doc-seo-56229-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},56229,1374391974585,"Genevieve","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c",8,"Research & Report","The political economy of coal across 12 countries: analysing qualitative interviews with topic models","Investments in coal-fired power plants are examined through the political economy lens using computational topic modelling. The study analyses 212 semi-structured expert interviews from 12 countries, identifying relevant topics by actor group and country. Although many topics are distributed similarly across actors, distinct country clusters emerge. For instance, Indonesia and India emphasize sustaining low electricity tariffs as a reason to invest in coal, while civil society is highlighted in South Africa and Kenya. Validation compares results with qualitative case studies and quantitative country groupings, assessing interpretability and methodological strengths.","Energy Research & Social Science 101 (2023) 103137  \nContents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy Research & Social Science  \njournal [homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/erss](homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/erss)  \n| Original research article\u003Cbr>The political economy of coal across 12 countries: Analysing qualitative interviews with topic models |  |  |  |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Niccol`o Manycha, b, *, Finn Müller-Hansen a, c, Jan Christoph Steckela, c, d\u003Cbr>a Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Torgauer Straße 12–15, 10829 Berlin, Germany b Technische Universit¨at Berlin, Department Economics of Climate Change, Straße des 17, Juni 145, 10623 Berlin, Germany c Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Telegraphenberg A 31, 14473 Potsdam, Germany\u003Cbr>d Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Chair of Climate and Development Economics, Erich-Weinert-Str. 1, 03046 Cottbus, Germany |  |  |  |\n| A R T I C L E I N F O |  | A B S T R A C T |  |\n| Keywords:\u003Cbr>Topic modelling Political economy Coal\u003Cbr>Qualitative interviews Country comparison Low-carbon transition |  | Understanding the ongoing investments in coal-fired power plants requires an analysis of the political economy. Here, we conduct a computational analysis of 212 interviews from 12 countries on the political economy of coal using topic modelling (TM). Our study highlights relevant topics by actor group and country. While most topics are similarly distributed across all actor groups, we find distinct clusters of countries in which similar topics play important roles. For example, in Indonesia and India, sustaining low electricity tariffs is brought forward as areason to invest in coal, whereas in South Africa and Kenya the civil society is considered instrumental in the choice of coal or alternatives. To validate our findings, we compare them to outcomes of qualitative case studies and to papers grouping countries based on quantifiable factors. As this study is among the first to apply TM to interview data, we thereby highlight strengths and challenges for such application and the interpretability of results. We argue that topic models are effective supplements to qualitative case studies, particularly when analysing large amounts of text. |  |\n\n1. Introduction  \nCoal is the primary source of global CO2 emissions [1]. To limit global warming to well below 2 ◦ C, unabated coal use in the power sector needs to be rapidly phased out [2]. Nevertheless, globally there is still 2074 GW of coal capacity in operation and another 457 GW in the pipeline (own calculations based on [3]). Scholars increasingly uncover the important role of political economy factors for the ongoing construction and usage of coal-fired power plants to identify entry points for feasible and effective climate policies.  \nMethodologically, many studies in energy social science use qualitative interviews to conduct country case studies. Case studies allow to ask “how” or “why” questions [4], to explore and generate hypotheses [5], and to produce context-specific knowledge [6]. Interviews are a useful tool to capture different perspectives from different actors and to improve understanding on a specific matter without requiring a-priori hypotheses [5,7]. In the case of coal, they thus help to better understand the underlying reasons for the persistence of coal mining and coal-fired power generation. Yet, there are only a few studies that generate crosscountry evidence on the political economy of coal. In addition,  \ncumulative quantities of text render manual analysis of interviews increasingly challenging.  \nAt the same time, the rapid development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools helps to generate insights about large text collections. As they are getting better and more versatile, their usage in academia and energy social science increases [8]. For example, Topic Modelling (TM) [9] identifies latent topics in texts to compare document","cbCaivrzhqqebOfO","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivrzhqqebOfO","pdf",1646437,1,14,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Political economy of coal and research gap\n## Qualitative interviews and methodological motivation\n## NLP and topic modelling approach\n## Research questions","[{\"question\":\"What data and method does the study use to analyze coal’s political economy?\",\"answer\":\"It uses 212 semi-structured expert interviews from 12 countries and applies topic modelling to identify latent topics and compare patterns.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the study relate interview topics to actor groups and country differences?\",\"answer\":\"Topics are identified by actor group and country; most topics show similar distributions across actors, while some countries form clusters where particular topics are especially important.\"},{\"question\":\"How are the topic-modelling findings validated?\",\"answer\":\"Results are compared with outcomes from qualitative case studies and with papers that group countries using quantifiable factors, to assess reliability and interpretability.\"}]",1783721345,35,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"the-political-economy-of-coal-across-12-countries-analysing-qualitative-interviews-with-topic-models","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,53,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-political-economy-of-coal-across-12-countries-analysing-qualitative-interviews-with-topic-models/56229/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-10",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"What data and method does the study use to analyze coal’s political economy?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"It uses 212 semi-structured expert interviews from 12 countries and applies topic modelling to identify latent topics and compare patterns.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"How does the study relate interview topics to actor groups and country differences?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Topics are identified by actor group and country; 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